JP3276847B2 - Pill feeder - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an improvement in a tablet feeding mechanism of a tablet feeder for supplying tablets (including capsules).

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A tablet feeder is known as a device for supplying tablets to a tablet packaging device. Various types of tablet feeders are known. As an example, a rotor is rotatably mounted at the bottom of a tablet storage case, and the storage case is detachably fitted to a support table from a horizontal direction. Some of the support bases are provided with a motor for driving the rotation of the rotor.

[0003] The support base of the tablet feeder is provided with a discharge path for discharging tablets obliquely downward, and the rotor is provided with pockets for dropping tablets on the outer periphery thereof. When the upper end position is matched, the tablet in the pocket falls and is discharged downward.

[0004]

The tablet feeder has a dove-shaped rotor at the bottom of the case and a rotatable disk-shaped rotor rotatably fitted around a rotating shaft. Is mounted with a driven gear, and a motor for rotating and driving the rotor is mounted on the support base. The drive gear at the output shaft end of this motor engages with the driven gear when the storage case is assembled into the support base. It has become.

On the other hand, tablets fall into pockets provided on the outer periphery of the rotor, and when one of the pockets matches the discharge path, the tablets in the pocket are discharged to the discharge path.
Therefore, when a tablet is put in the storage case, the tablet is simply put in the pocket.

When tablets stored in the tablet feeder having such a configuration are to be refilled at an intermediate stage thereof or at a final stage of the amount of stored tablets, the tablet storage case is generally separated from the support base to form a tablet storage case. Tablets are replenished. However, in the path for transmitting the rotational power from the motor via the gears of the rotor to separate the storage case from the support base, when the storage case is separated or assembled, the teeth of the driven gear and the drive gear may have a slight contact with the teeth. And the rotor may rotate slightly.

[0007] If the rotor is slightly rotated before the rotor has stopped just before discharging the tablet from the pocket to the discharge path, the position of the pocket completely matches the discharge path due to this slight rotation, The tablets are dropped and discharged without any discharge command, and the number of tablets in the storage case is slightly changed. This is due to the fact that there is no means for preventing the rotation shaft of the rotor lower portion provided on the storage case side of the conventional tablet feeder from rotating when the storage case is attached or detached.

In view of the above-mentioned problems of the conventional tablet feeder rotor described above, the present invention eliminates unexpected tablet supply from the rotor by providing a means for preventing rotation on the rotary shaft of the rotor, and ensures that a predetermined number of tablets are supplied. It is an object to provide a tablet feeder capable of supplying a number of tablets.

[0009]

According to the present invention, as a means for solving the above-mentioned problems, a tablet storage case in which a rotor is rotatably mounted on an inner bottom portion is provided on a support base for supporting a motor for driving the rotation of the rotor. removably embedded through the guide plate to, the rotor outer periphery provided with a plurality of pockets at predetermined intervals, the tablets were freely discharged when one of the pockets to a discharge passage provided at a predetermined position matches, the tablet storage under the bottom of the case, a rotation preventing means for preventing rotation of the rotor during removal of the rotor lower end engaged with the housing case to be that the drive gear provided on a rotating shaft of providing, the rotation preventing means of the rotor rotation axis and elastic engagement member that match engagement with the drive gear, provided an engagement release member for releasing the engagement the elastic engagement members, tablets yield
Against the engagement release member upon integration of paid cases <br/> place of the support of the guide plate, thereby it had a structure the tablet feeder to release the engagement by pushing back the elastic engagement members .

[0010]

[0011] The tablet feeder of the present invention is used by detachably incorporating a tablet storage case into a support base. A predetermined amount of tablets is stored in the storage case in advance, and the tablets are sequentially and sequentially discharged one by one from a discharge path by rotating the rotor.

When the tablet is being supplied or when the storage case is to be removed from the support table for replenishing or checking the tablets at the last stage, the tablets in the pockets are located just before falling into the discharge path. May stop. If the storage case is removed in this state, the gear and the gear that transmit the rotational force of the motor to the rotor are separated from each other, but if no means is taken, the meshing state of both gears will be slightly As a result, the gear on the rotor side rotates, and the tablet in the pocket falls to the discharge path.

However, according to the present invention, since the rotation preventing means for preventing the rotation of the rotor is attached to the lower bottom of the storage case to which the rotor is attached, the unexpected rotation of the rotor is completely prevented, and the tablets can be removed from the pocket of the rotor. It does not fall with the slight rotation described above. The elastic engagement member
An engagement release member for releasing engagement with the drive gear is provided.
When installing the tablet storage case on the mounting base,
By applying the mating release member to the appropriate position on the guide plate of the support base
The elastic engagement member is pushed back to release the engagement with the drive gear.
You.

[0014]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of the tablet feeder of the embodiment. Since the basic configuration of the tablet feeder of this embodiment is known, the necessary configuration will be briefly described below. As shown in the figure, the tablet feeder comprises a tablet storage case 1 and a support table 2 which are detachably combined.

In the tablet storage case 1, a central part of the inner bottom part 3 is formed as a dove hell-shaped concave part 3 a, and a rotor 4
It is provided rotatably via a. On the outer periphery of the rotor 4, an entire circumferential groove 5 r for dropping the tablet T and pockets 5 thereunder are provided at predetermined intervals, and are provided at predetermined positions on the support base 2 side as shown in FIG. An L-shaped holding plate 6 is attached only to the back surface of the bottom of the case at a position corresponding to the discharge path 8. 7 is an opening, 1a is a cover plate.

A rotary gear 9a is attached to the lower end of the rotary shaft 4a of the rotor 4, and another gear 9b meshing with the rotary gear 9a is provided on the case inner bottom plate 3a. FIG. 2 is a plan view in which the bottom of the storage case 1 is viewed upward. 1
Numeral 0 denotes an elastic engagement member, as shown, a tooth-shaped portion 10a is formed at the distal end of the L-shaped elastic member, and the base end 10c is fixed to the lower bottom of the storage case. An L-shaped engagement release arm 10b is formed at the base of the distal end side of the elastic engagement member 10. The arm 10b comes into contact with a member on the support base 2 side as described later to release the meshing of the teeth.

A guide plate 11 is provided on the support 2, and arms 11a for engaging the storage case 1 at both ends thereof.
Is provided. The arm 11a is partially provided with a concave portion. As shown in FIG. 2, projections 1B and 1B are provided on the inner bottom of the storage case 1 so as to sandwich the arm. The storage case 1 is engaged with the support base 2 by fitting into the concave portions.
A shoulder 11x is formed on the guide plate 11 at a position facing the disengagement arm 10b. When the disengagement arm 10b is pushed back when the storage case 1 is assembled, the meshing of the tooth profile is released. You.

A drive gear 12 is provided at one corner of the guide plate 11, and power from a motor 13 in the support table is transmitted through a rotation shaft of the drive gear 12. The rotating gear 9b is engaged with the gear 12 to rotate the rotor 4. Reference numeral 14 in FIG. 1 denotes a mounting block on the guide plate 11, in which a discharge path 8 is provided, and a sensor S for detecting the passage of the tablet is provided.

The tablet feeder of the embodiment having the above-described structure operates as follows. When a required amount of tablets is supplied into the storage case 1 of the tablet feeder and the rotor 4 is driven to rotate with the lid plate 1a closed, and the pocket 5 matches the discharge path 8 at the position of the opening 7, the pocket 5 One of the two tablets falls into the discharge path 8. Blank pocket 5
When the plate is further rotated, the holding plate 6 disappears, so that the upper tablet T fills it. Then, the tablet T in the pocket 5 immediately after the position where the tablet has fallen (behind the rotation direction) coincides with the discharge path 8 and falls, and thus the tablets T in the pockets 5 are successively connected to the discharge path 8 one after another. To fall.

The storage case 1 is detached from the support table 2 in order to check the tablet feeder or replenish the tablets in the middle of the process of continuously discharging and supplying tablets as described above or at the final stage. (The motor is stopped immediately before).

When the rotor is stopped before the above-mentioned removal, the pocket 5 is kept in the pocket 5 of the rotor 4 while the tablet remains in the pocket 5.
Stops at a position slightly nearer to the discharge path 8, the tablet in the pocket 5 is not dropped and discharged, and is held at a position slightly further away.

When the storage case 1 is detached from the support base 2 in this state, both of the gears 12 on the motor output shaft and the rotor 4
Is disengaged from the gear 9b at the lower end thereof. At this time, the disengagement arm 10b, which has been pushed by the shoulder 11x of the guide plate 11 until immediately before and has been forcibly disengaged, returns to its original position because the pressing force from the shoulder 11x disappears,
The toothed portion 10a at the tip of the elastic engagement member 10 meshes with the gear 9a at the lower end of the rotor 4 to prevent rotation of the rotor.

Therefore, when the storage case 1 is removed from the support table 2, the rotor 4 does not slightly rotate, and the tablet in the pocket 5 is securely held even immediately before falling into the discharge path 8. You.

When the storage case 1 is mounted on the support 2, the elastic member 10 pushed back attempts to return to the original state when the storage case 1 is detached. Since the gear 9a is returned slightly obliquely to the gear 9a, the gear 9a is slightly rotated by the return operation. For this reason, the base end 10c of the elastic engagement member 10 is provided on one side of the lower bottom of the storage case so that the rotation direction of the slight rotation of the gear 9a is opposite to the rotation direction of the rotor at the time of dispensing tablets.

Although the disengagement arm 10b of the elastic engaging member 10 cooperates with the shoulder 11x of the guide plate 11, the elastic engaging member 10 is pushed back. It is sufficient that 11x abuts somewhere on the guide plate 11 without any particular requirement.

The elastic engaging member 10 of the above embodiment is
Although it is formed by the letter-shaped member, the meshing of the tooth profile portion 10a with the gear 9a is performed in conjunction with the removal of the storage case 1,
When the storage case 1 is incorporated into the support 2, any other shape or function member may be used as long as the engagement can be released.

For example, a straight rod is provided on the side wall of the bottom of the case on the center line in the direction of attaching and detaching the storage case passing through the center of the rotor 4, and a head portion which can move in parallel with the rod at the rod tip is provided inside the head. The head may be elastically mounted via a provided coil spring, a toothed portion may be provided at the tip of the head, and an engagement release arm may be formed on the side of the head.
Alternatively, a brake for preventing the rotation of the rotor rotating shaft 4a is provided directly on the rotating shaft behind the concave portion 3a on the inner bottom surface of the storage case 1, and the brake is loosened when the storage case is mounted. You may make it do.

[0028]

As described in detail above, the tablet feeder of the present invention uses the elastic engaging member at the lower bottom of the storage case .
Install the rotation preventing means, the storage case is engaged with the rotation preventing means to the rotor of the gear when removed from the support base to prevent rotation of Russia <br/> over data, at the time of storage case embedded elastic engagement
Place the disengagement member provided on the member in place on the guide plate of the support base.
It is so arranged to release the engagement by ether, tablets within the rotor pocket which is in the discharge position immediately before is no longer discharged because the change in the meshing state of the gears does not occur during attachment and detachment of the storage case, with unexpected state The advantage is obtained that the tablets are prevented from being ejected from the pocket.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of a tablet feeder according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a plan view seen from the back of the storage case.

FIG. 3 is a main sectional view of the tablet feeder.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along line IV-IV in FIG. 3;

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Storage case 2 Support stand 3 Case inner bottom part 4 Rotor 5 Pocket 5r Full circumference groove 8 Discharge path 10 Elastic engagement member 10a Tooth profile part 10b Disengagement arm 11x Shoulder part 13 Motor

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (58) Field surveyed (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) B65B 35/06-35/08 B65B 1/30 A61J 3/00

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] 1. A tablet storage case 1 having a rotor rotatably mounted on an inner bottom thereof is detachably mounted via a guide plate 11 to a support base 2 supporting a motor for rotationally driving the rotor. the outer periphery provided with a plurality of pockets in a predetermined interval, and freely discharge the tablet when any of the pockets to meet the discharge passage provided at a predetermined position, the tablet storage case 1
Of the lower base, a rotation preventing means for preventing rotation of the rotor during removal of the rotor lower end engaged with the housing case 1 with a drive gear provided on the rotation shaft of providing, the rotation preventing means
An elastic engagement member 10 that engages with a drive gear of the rotor rotation shaft;
And an engagement release member for releasing the engagement with the elastic engagement member 10.
10b, a disengagement part when assembling the tablet storage case
The material 10b is applied to an appropriate position of the guide plate 11 provided on the support base 1,
Thereby, the elastic engagement member 10 is pushed back to release the engagement.
Tablet feeder configured as follows . 2. The elastic engaging member 10 is driven to its tip.
The tablet feeder according to claim 1, further comprising a tooth portion that engages with the gear . Wherein said elastic engagement member 10 is L-shaped elastic member, tablet according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that a L-shaped protrusion as the engagement release member to the tip base feeder.